Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
After ‘off’ year, Brown gets powerful stable into high gear
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – If 31 graded stakes victories, including 12 in Grade 1 races, qualify as a down year, well, so be it. Chad Brown is moving on.
“It’s fine,” said Brown, who, despite leading all North American trainers in both Grade 1 and overall graded wins in 2020, was not among the Eclipse Award finalists for outstanding trainer after earning the award each of the four prior years (2016-19).
“We focus on running our best horses between April 1 until the first week of December, and a good part of that is when everything shut down last year” because of the coronavirus pandemic, Brown said. “So it set us behind. But I was still pleased that we wound up having a really strong year.”
According to Daily Racing Form statistics, Brown’s $16.2 million in stable earnings ranked fourth last year behind the three Eclipse finalists – Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox (who was voted the award), and Bob Baffert. Brown believes he might have been slighted by Eclipse voters because “the three finalists all had strong years as well, but also because maybe we’d set the bar so high. After you win a few years in a row, there’s a lot of voter fatigue. I understand you’ve got to move it around a little, for the sport. You can’t keep having the same people win every year – I totally understand that. I actually don’t disagree with that.”
Brown, 42, has been relatively quiet through the first 10 weeks of 2021, which is his norm. For four months, through late March, he winters in Florida while keeping a sizable string in New York. It won’t be long before he returns to Belmont Park with many of his best horses from Palm Meadows and Payson Park while also dispatching assistant Whit Beckman to Kentucky for the upcoming spring meets at Keeneland and Churchill Downs.
Retirements of top horses invariably affect the year-toyear makeup of the Brown stable, and that’s true to an almost impossible degree for 2021. Gone to the breeding shed are a murderer’s row of equine talent, including Rushing Fall, Uni, Sister charlie, Newspaper of record, Instilled Regard, Guarana, and Complexity, as well as another half-dozen or so graded winners.
“We lost some really good ones,” Brown said. “It’ll be difficult replacing those great horses, but that’s what we’ve set out to do.”
Brown has a trio of 3-yearolds in the latest Daily Racing Form Derby Watch Top 20, so he’s hoping owners and fans will take notice that he’s capable of succeeding with younger horses on dirt as he seeks to downplay his established reputation with older horses on turf. All three are scheduled to have their final preps for the May 1 Kentucky Derby on April 3 – Risk Taking and Crowded Trade in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, and Highly Motivated in the Blue Grass at Keeneland.
“They’re all coming around and in good form right now,” said Brown, adding “there’s a possibility” Crowded Trade could be diverted instead to the Preakness on May 15, using the Lexington on April 10 at Keeneland as a stepping-stone, “depending on how he trains the next couple of weeks.”
Aside from his allowance or maiden winners who might soon find themselves stepping up, Brown is formulating plans for the proven stakes horses who remain on his shed row.
As for his top older males, Grade 1 winner Raging Bull likely goes in the Maker’s Mark Mile on April 9 at Keeneland, while Digital Age will look to repeat in the Old Forester Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill, where he will face stablemate Domestic Spending. Sovereign, the 2019 Irish Derby winner for Coolmore, could make his first start under Brown’s care in the May 8 Man o’ War at Belmont.
Also, 6-year-old Analyze It goes in the Danger’s Hour on April 10 at Aqueduct, and 7-year-old Devamani returns in the Fort Marcy on May 1 at Belmont. There are no set plans for Structor, the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner who was a disappointing fourth in his Feb. 13 return here at Gulfstream Park following a layoff of more than 15 months.
The Jenny Wiley on April 10 at Keeneland is the next stop for two of Brown’s top filly-mare turf horses, Etoile and Tamahere, while Duopoly goes in either the Jenny Wiley or the Plenty of Grace on April 11 at Aqueduct. Blowout runs in the Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile on May 1, the same day Orglandes and My Sister Nat return in the Sheepshead Bay at Belmont.
Also, the Beaugay on May 8 at Belmont is the target for Nay Lady Nay, with Great Island and Counterparty Risk also possible. Viadera, a nose winner over Blowout in the Grade 1 Matriarch last fall, won’t return to the races until late spring or early summer, Brown said.
Other plans include Dunbar Road returning in the La Troiennne on April 30 at Churchill; the 5-year-old mare Royal Flag going in the April 16 Doubledogdare on the Keeneland main track; and the 3-year-old turf filly Fluffy Socks going in the Memories of Silver on April 18, unless she waits for the Edgewood on April 30 at Churchill.